Jennifer Harvey-Kindred’s Story

It was Spring of 2022 and I was struggling. I couldn’t sleep because my nose was a booger-making-factory, which forced me to breath out of my mouth. I was exhausted and had been suffering from sinus issues for over two months. We were headed into Summer Break, and I knew that I had three months to rest and recoup for the next school year. I needed the rest desperately. As a special education preschool teacher, I had to be on the top of my game to ensure that my students received a good educational experience. I called a provider whom I had witnessed speaking about alternative treatments during COVID. I had no idea that this one phone call would not only save my life, but would completely change my life forever. 

This NP was the only Environmentally Acquired Illness Provider in our state. I had no clue what that meant, I only knew that I needed some help to turn my nose off so I could breathe through it to get good sleep. It was a very long process to even get an appointment, but I was determined. I knew there was something different about her when it came to medical care. During COVID she was critically thinking and applying that to her patients instead of the cookie cutter approach from the typical medical establishment organizations. She took 33 vials of blood to look at my methylation pathway markers to thoroughly address my body. As the phlebotomist assured me, “She is the most thorough medical provider I have ever worked with in my 30 plus year career. She will be able to read your body from head to toe like an Encyclopedia.”

This provider is so intellectually intelligent, she is amazing. I was found to be in cytokine storm. A cytokine storm is a severe, potentially life-threatening immune reaction where the body releases an excessive, uncontrolled amount of inflammatory proteins called cytokines, into the bloodstream. This over activation causes widespread inflammation which can lead to significant tissue damage, multi-organ dysfunction, and organ failure. No 50-year-old with a career, husband, and 5 children wants to hear, “I am not sure why you haven’t stroked or clotted out by now,” but those are the words I heard. Then came the question of all questions. “Do you want to get to the root of why this is happening to your body?”…I said “absolutely,” as I didn’t want this to happen to me again. One of the questions she asks on her intake questionnaire is, “where do you work and where did you go to school.” These are very critical questions for her as she had been seeing a pattern in her patients who worked in different careers. At the time she didn’t tell me, but her sickest patients are usually teachers and students attending our local schools. I was no different as I was functioning, but barely. I was one of her sickest patients that year and was positive for all mycotoxins. Looking back, I had been a frog in a boiling pot. Mold illness for me, was a slow decompose. Not just physically, but I lost my personality along the way and never realized it.

I have spent countless hours learning about everything “mold illness” and building the science. I now have a mold detection K-9 and spend extra time taking training courses to learn more about the biology of buildings. Gone are the days when I can walk into any building and just be present. The detection in me is always scanning and looking for signs of water-damage or building flaws. I can, with 100 percent confidence, say where I was exposed to the mold that stole my life. It was room 11 at the school I taught in. I remember the day I was sitting at my computer working on paperwork and I lost my eyesight that quick. I chalked it up to staring at the computer screen. I now know the wall behind my back was the culprit. It was a 70-year-old building, where three quarters of the room was underground without proper drainage, in a northern climate with snow melt. I had an AC unit in my room which had never been serviced, that would drip water and had warped the wood shelving behind it. We also had a horrible silver fish infestation that cost over 12,000 dollars to remediate…only for them to return. The roof was flat and the biggest sign of water damage was a sink hole outside my window on the playground.

Signs of mold illness that had been overlooked in my health symptoms were sinus infections, insomnia, weight gain, anemia, heavy menstrual bleeding, fatigue, and discontentment. I suffered from anemia so badly while working in that classroom that my fingernails were concave and I had a strong craving for chewing ice. I later had to have an ablation procedure to thin out my uterus due to heavy bleeding. When I went in for my outpatient surgery, they checked my anemia levels and the nurse brought in the sheet to show me a solid black line that encompassed one side of the paper to the next. She said, “I am not sure how you are functioning.” This paired with, “I am not sure why your placentas are so thick,” were all missed signs of mold poisoning. At the end of my journey, (in the building that caused so much of my health damage), I had what is known as Volcano Brain. It was during COVID and my brain wouldn’t shut itself off. I was in a fight-or-flight acute stress response and perseverated on topics. It was like the special education teacher was taking on the qualities of her students. I also began having issues with chemical sensitivity. I had a coworker who was scared to death of the COVID virus so she would douse the moldy classroom with Lysol and bleach the toys. I didn’t want to argue with her so I sat in the classroom being slowly poisoned by not only mold, but cleaning products. I ended up having a panic attack one day due to the chemical concentration in the classroom and I filed a workman’s compensation claim, (from exposure to biocide chemicals that the staff had purchased with Covid money to sanitize the schools.) This experience was another missed opportunity that screamed “mold illness”. By this point, coworkers and central office staff began the gaslighting. They said that I was making up my illness including the workman’s comp claim. They lied by stating the biocide was only salt and water, rather than a Quat, (Quaternary Ammonium Compounds).

I transferred to a new building and thought things would get better. They did…but they didn’t. This new school didn’t have the black mold causing the volcano brain, but it was full of candida, mycotoxin varities of fusarium, aspergillis, penicillium, and many additional pathogenic bacteria. I know this because I started sampling with tests anywhere that I thought was necessary to keep me safe. In the women’s bathroom the toilet leaked, tiles fell of the wall, the vents were horrible, and water dripped from the fixtures. When I tested the bathroom, it came back with high levels of candida. Beyond the bathroom, I had a beam above my desk that had water damage on it. In the Spring, water would pour in through the window frame, while the classroom across the hall had water pouring in through the light fixtures. This was another recipe for disaster and my body was done. Eight days into the 2023 school year I ended up in the Emergency Room. My body had had enough. I would clear out of mycotoxins over the summer only to return to fight the toxic battle again. This time my medical providers in good conscience would not sign off on my return. They were seeing too many staff members and students from the buildings suffering with severe illness. I medically resigned the night when I heard about my colleague, Tammy dying in the hospital from uterine cancer. I was working an Extended School Year with her when she became ill half way through the term. I was in room 107 and she was in 105. I completed a mycotoxin ERMI test on the room I was in and it had about 2,000 parts over the high limit for mycotoxins. She was just one of four school staff members to pass away from cancer whom I personally knew of, in about an 18-month period.

We are only an area with approximately 12,000 full time residents. In the school I worked at, two boys from the same class of 22 students had leukemia in High School. The school is the only space these two boys shared. The statistical probability of this happening is crazy, as it takes 400,000 kids for two children to have leukemia. Once I started talking with others, the numbers of poisoned staff members were off the charts. The stories from complaints dating back to at least nine years ago were numerous. I went to the union and the administration, both at the school and central office. They chose a response of lying, bullying, and poison over integrity and empathy. There are still people in each of their 40 buildings today who are being environmentally poisoned.

It has been a slow journey of my own recovery, but I am about three years out now and I have regained most of my health and the person I lost along the way. There are days when I long to go back to a time when I could go anywhere, eat anything, wear anything, and be able to stay in poisonous buildings. Due to my exposure to mold mycotoxins, my MAST cells have an internal response to poisons others can’t recognize. I am a “canary in the coal mine,” which is both a blessing and curse. Blessing because I have an internal compass that tells me to leave and get to safety away from the poison. A curse because others are oblivious and will just sit and be poisoned while judging me as crazy. The effects of mycotoxins are similar to Carbon Monoxide poisoning, it just isn’t the fast track to death, but rather a slow torture. I refuse to be a victim, instead I have chosen to spread awareness. To continue to educate others on the health risks of water damage buildings, especially schools with mycotoxins is of extreme importance.

The CDC has a poster on what to wear when entering a building with mold. It literally says caution children should not be in buildings with mold. https://www.cdc.gov/mold-health/communication-resources/what-to-wear.html. 

I appreciate the opportunity to tell my story, but it isn’t just mine. I have heard from many across America, from New Jersey to Georgia, Tennessee to Illinois and even Alaska where I am from. At least four of us in our local area went to work in our schools to give back to the community we grew up in. We were students who attended the same school district buildings and seem to now be experiencing the most extreme symptoms. The high school I attended was leaking water per the school district’s own report when I attended. This makes me wonder if the reason why the four of us are sicker than others is because of our previous exposure in those buildings. Children and school staff members deserve better than the current conditions of schools across America, which currently have received a D+ rating for infrastructure. With no oversight or consequences for deferred maintenance, lack of proper education, testing and assessing protocols, American schools will continue to poison the occupants with tax payer money. 

I wouldn’t wish my forever chronic illness upon my worst enemy. It robs you of everything, so I will continue to advocate for change. We now have technology that can be installed to ensure classrooms have clean indoor air. I am hopeful that 2026 will be a big year for acknowledging CIRS and mold illness. The gaslighting has only hurt and, I believe, killed many, including students and staff in buildings with excessive water damage.

Jennifer Harvey-Kindred, www.alaskamolddog.com